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Israeli breakfast is what holds our society together; it’s what keeps us sane (in this reviewer's opinion, at least). Here are two places that offer life-altering Israeli breakfasts (polite waiter not often included)...
In the charming neighborhood of Kerem Hateimanim in Tel Aviv, one is swept away into a world of a hundred years ago, wandering through tiny crooked streets fragrant with the smells of spices and jasmine.
Tel Aviv is known as the party city of Israel, and every summer it gets an extra boost with Pride month. The city shows off its pride with rainbow colors, parades, beach parties, festivals and more. A special highlight is the LGBT film festival, which marked its 5th anniversary this year.
The Druze have closely guarded the secrets of their faith throughout the centuries. While they are famous for the hospitality and kindness to strangers, they fervently practice Taqiya, meaning a concealment of their religious beliefs.
The Reut-Sadaqa Interfaith Encounter group met on the 6th of May 2010 as previously scheduled, at the Swedish Institute. The main topic of the discussion was: Abraham/Ibrahim.
The Druze are a close-knit ethnic group whose religious practices remain secret to this day. They can trace their origins over a thousand years ago back to Egypt. Also known as the ‘Sons Of Grace’, the Druze have a rich and fascinating tradition.
The 220 million year old Ramon Crater is a national wonder located in the Ramon Nature Preserve in the southern Negev desert. This natural phenomenon is the world’s largest makhtesh, a geological landform unique to Israel’s Negev Desert and to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
"We started off with a little story from one of our special story teller. The story was about rain, and how precious it was in the land of Israel due to its scarcity. This story was the perfect introduction to our session..."
"Better Place” is the name of the company, half familiar to the Israeli reader. It's aims are big. Famously, it is the response of CEO & owner, big time Israeli businessman Shai Agasi, to a question first asked at the World Economic Forum in Davos; “How do you make the world a better place by 2020?”
Simply by searching on Facebook with simple keywords such as ‘Israel’ and ‘environment’, one is able to connect with individuals engaged in environmental initiatives. As the Hebrew phrase goes, if we take care of the world, the world will take care of us."
Prayer – February 4th 2010
On a stormy winter day we gathered again at the warm Swedish Theological Institute for a joint conversation. This time we talked about prayer in Judaism and Islam.
Kabbalist Michael Laitman opens his book From Chaos to Harmony with the following observations of the current state of humanity: “It is hardly a secret that humanity is in a deep crisis. Many of us already feel it. Sensations of meaninglessness, frustration, and emptiness engulf our lives. Family crises, a troubled educational system, drug abuse, personal insecurities, and fear of nuclear war and ecological threats, all cloud our happiness.”
Three encounters of the "Circle of Light and Hope" produced three talks about: "Inheritance", "How your religion views The Other”, and "Marriage in Islam and Judaism".
It is not often that one stands at the bottom of a mountain and finds himself at a look-out point, yet this is precisely the experience of standing at the bottom of Mt. Carmel in Haifa, seat of the Baha'i Gardens and Baha'i World Center.
On November 31st, 2009 Noa hosted the encounter, to which each of us was asked to bring an object that carries personal meaning for her and is close to her heart. On December 5th, 2009 we fare-welled from one of our members, who was one of the founders of our Or-Nur Women's Interfaith Encounter group in Haifa.
Jewelry speaks to an important aspect of the human condition; it expresses man’s seemingly innate compulsion to take the elements of the earth and transform them into objects that make our lives more beautiful and meaningful.
We were a number of Jewish and Arab students, for whom coexistence activities are an essential part of their lives. We all went through bridging seminars and like in any beginning of a seminar, stands the question: what is it? What will happen? Will there be anything new? In what path will the activity take us?
Koala Recycling Solutions was formed about two years ago by Eran Hilerowicz (27). A trip to New Zealand opened him up to the 'recycling bug', and following an environmental leadership course in Tel Aviv University he decided to leave his day job and dedicate his life to stimulating awareness on recycling, reuse, correct garbage disposal.
While there isn’t a Kabbalist on the planet who would claim the process of spiritual transcendence is easy, defining the levels of the soul certainly provides us with useful markers to measure our progress on such a journey.
The Interfaith Encounter prayer group met on the 8th of April 2010 as previously scheduled, at Miskenot Sha’ananim, and discussed the importance of food / bread in our lives and consequently in our religions.
Dafna Renbaum went to visit Rami Levi's famous supermarket chain located in the Binyamin Region north east of Jerusalem.
What is the purpose of religion? For Kabbalists, the answer to this question is inevitably tied to a seemingly more complex question - What is the purpose of life?
The IEA Interfaith Prayer Encounters Group coordinated by Sheikh Bukhari and Rabbi Henri Noach met at Mishkenot She'ananim on March 4th, for their 2nd encounter, which focused on the subject of Rain in the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Liturgical Traditions. A very lively discussion took place.
When one reviews the Biblical narratives of Genesis and the women who became to be the wives of the Patriarchs, one finds a striking congruence in the way such women were selected to join the ranks of the Abrahamic lineage.
Kabbalah maintains that there is a world which exists above the physical realm that human beings occupy, called the Upper World or the 99 Percent Reality. In contrast to the harsh and seemingly chaotic realm of the physical world in which man lives, the Upper World is a world of united consciousness and harmony. Kabbalist Yehuda Berg calls it “a world of absolute order, perfection, and infinite spiritual Light.”
Donna Jacobs - an interfaith storyteller and educator from Sydney Australia held a special "story telling encounter". Using smile-raising stories she talks about the role of interfaith encounters, our assumptions on the world, and life.
Mother, I Am Not Coming To The Seder; A report from the Green Revolution,
Part II – We Build
Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste, Smell. These are five senses which define the human experience. But do they also guide and enrich the spiritual experience? Kabbalists would answer this question with an unequivocal “no.”
The National Park of Beit She'an, located in a town by the same name, provides a live demonstration of the common saying that "all glory is fleeting".
The Israeli music scene is alive and well, kicking as kicking can be. Truly it is hard to recall the size of this tiny country when thinking of the sheer amount of music made here in all genres, all styles, of such quality and quantity. But the “Swamp”, in Israeli vernacular, is after all small, and has very little room. For those who wish to put their lives in music, to make this their profession, their reason for being, a place at the top of the multitudes of bands seems impossible. And yet, they do not quit.
Mother, I Am Not Coming To The Seder; A report from the Green Revolution
It is always hard to explain who we are, and what we do. Among ourselves, we call it “The Green Revolution”. The festival insists on calling it “Boombamela Green”.
Kabbalah on Identifying and Transforming Reactive Behavior: Part III
Using the fundamental texts of Kabbalah, Contemporary Kabbalists have extrapolated a practical method for correcting the reactive compulsions of the ego, called the Proactive Formula.
The story of Joseph details the journey of Jacob’s second youngest son’s unexpected and unprecedented rise to power in the foreign land of Egypt. While the series of events depicted in the narrative are among the most exciting the Bible has to offer, perhaps more compelling than the story itself is the dramatic change in the tone and focus of the Biblical narrative that can be observed in these final chapters of Genesis.
Kabbalah on Identifying and Transforming Reactive Behavior: Part II
Like George, we are all driven by the pursuit of fulfilling our desires, and we are bitterly disappointed when satisfaction escapes us.
Almost all cultures have some form of massage or other, and they do so from ancient times. For instance, writings about massages have been found in ancient civilizations such Rome, Greece, India, Japan, China, Egypt and Mesopotamia, each with their specific peculiarities. The issue of a people’s character and the massages they practice is probably the object of anthropological exploration. And if not, it should be.
For individuals unacquainted with Jewish culture, religious objects such as the mezuzah and shofar, and religious clothing including the kippah and tallit, are common markers of the Jewish people that pose something of a mystery as to their purpose and use.
Kabbalah on Identifying and Transforming Reactive Behavior: Part I
Psychology and Kabbalah concur that the fulfillment of desire, be it biological, social, or emotional, is the locus of human behavior.
"This week I hit an all time personal record: I went to three weddings! and to the conclusion that that we are living in a very merry and diverse holy land..."
On Saturday, 27 December 1913, thousands of people from all over the Holy Land gathered at Jaffa's sandy beach. They came there to get a glimpse of a foreign visitor who descended from the sky with the help of a strange machine.
What they witnessed was the landing of the first airplane in the Holy Land.
Nahalat Shiv’ah is almost 150 years old now, but it boasts jubilant atmosphere and poses an attraction for many young people from Jerusalem and from places.
Fourteen people of different faiths met at Swedish Theological Institute on Feb.15, 2010 to discuss the figure of Moses/Musa/Moshe.
Nahala’ot is a charming neighborhood that takes one over 100 years back while still looking relevant, interesting and attractive to modern eyes as well. A visit there can be a most rewarding experience.
A flash mob can be loosely defined as a sudden gathering of seemingly unrelated individuals who spontaneously assemble to perform some sort of random act, and then quickly disperse as though nothing had happened. On February 18, 2010, Haifa was struck by one...
In Kabbalah, the small, everyday battles, like deciding to wake up without pressing the snooze button, are the important ones. Awareness of the power of the Opponent to guide people into negative behavior and feeling is the first step in curtailing that power.
The name Ben Hinnom most probably means Son of Hinnom, Hinnom being the owner of the land, but the valley’s name in Hebrew, Gei Ben Hinnom, resembles the Hebrew word for Hell, Geihenom, and despite its peaceful and innocent appearance, its history makes the name well deserved.
"The sight just took my breath away. It was on a winter day, in one of those mornings in which I had to commute from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv for work, a trip of some 40 to 50 minutes by bus, which seems to be bridging two places a world apart..."
Jews have celebrated the event of Purim for nearly two and a half millennia with a public reading of the Megilat Esther (the Scroll of Esther). The reading is traditionally followed by a Carnivalesque celebration of epic proportions.
The Interfaith Encounter Group on Prayer, the 33rd group of the Interfaith Encounter Association, was inaugurated in the story Thursday of February 4th 2010.
...In one side stand those who are all-for-Madonna, even if it represents some sort of Jewish mysticism included in the package, and in the other everything-against-Madonna, specially her-private-wrong-superficial Kabbalsitic interpretation...
"Every Purim holyday is the same… since I was a little girl. First, weeks of excitement, thinking that the best celebration of the year is coming..."
Yemin Moshe, literally “Moses’s Right Hand”, is one of Jerusalem’s most charming corners, an upper scale neighborhood populated today mainly with artists, writers and well to do people of other walks of life.
The theme of this month's meeting was Tolerance and Respect for Other Religions.
On March 26th The Future Interfaith Encounter group of mothers and daughters had its encounter on the theme of El-Umra (visit to Mecca not during the Hajj time).
Travelers and natives of the Holy Land agree that each of her cities possesses its own essence, a unique blend of qualities that gives it distinction.
In the following series of articles we will take you back to where it all began, the very first creation of the Israeli sport associations which laid the foundations for sports development in Israel.
Eleven people met on a very rainy night at the Swedish Theological Institute to discuss Yossef/Joseph/Yusuf in the three monotheistic traditions.
The first time I saw him was a sunny Friday morning. He was sitting outside of our building, distractedly moving a leg, his gaze lost somewhere in the horizon. I liked his dreamy eyes...
Israel, 2010. A modern, technologically advanced country, a revived nation with numerous achievements to its credit, one of the biggest of which is the revival of its own ancient language, the Hebrew, and yet in the center of Israel’s capital, in the midst of Jerusalem, there is a small enclave in which it seems that time has ceased to flow a few hundred years ago.
The marriage between Jacob and Rachel is a unique instance in the Bible of a marriage built on a foundation of romantic love. The Biblical narrative describes their first meeting as a case of “love at first sight.”
On the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat, which usually falls in January or February, Jews around the world celebrate a New Year for trees.
MEET is an innovative social start-up founded in 2004 by a group of Palestinian and Israeli young professionals. MEET utilizes technology and business, in order to create a common professional network between Palestinian and Israeli youth while providing them with individual and group skills.
Nestled between the mountains of the upper Galilee and the Golan heights lies a very unique and important area which is a must see for all eco-tourists traveling in the holy land.
When modern visitors bask in the sun underneath the palm trees and listen to the water flowing, they might find it hard to believe that the Harod Valley provided a setting for one of the most significant battles in world history.
My best friend has been together with her man for the last eight years. And I have always thought she was extremely lucky to have such a nice, polite, discreet, husband. She did too, for a while.
The Sefer Yetzirah is perhaps the most important of the Kabbalistic texts. It presents a harrowingly complex linguistic and mathematic exegesis of the Book of Genesis, endeavoring to reveal a more precise, in depth analysis of the process of creation already described in the Torah.
What is now an almost perfect holiday destination has provided, for the last 3,000 years, a setting for some of the most dramatic events in the history of the Holy Land.
While the story of Masada has become widely spread, "Camela" digs in to jewish tradition and past in the search for the Jewish stance on jewish-life in the face of submission.
Revital Yona made a trip to the Hararit community: practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, and to Mivdad Netofa - a unique monastery and church built in 1967 by two monks.
What does it mean to be a human being? One would be hard pressed to find a person who hasn’t asked himself this very question. An answer seems increasingly evasive in this post-modern era of ours in which all considerations biological, social, and emotional are of equal import.
Kabbalah vs Science. Can Kabbalah’s view of the creation of the universe and the scientific discoveries of the last few decades go hand in hand?
For those unacquainted with the ethos of Hasidic Judaism, the typically dowdy dress of the Hasids might give the movement a misleadingly somber tone.
Interfaith Encounters - Learn about interfaith encountrs in the Holy Land from the point of view of the participents. These groups are organised by the Interfaith-Encounter Association:
Chanukah and a talk on education
Right in the middle of Israel, equidistant from north to south, from east to west, lays a vast National Reserve of some 625 acres in size, whose entire purpose is to take visitors 3000 years back to biblical times; and fulfill its purpose it does.
When one compares the brief 14 chapters of The Bible that relates the story of Abraham with the enormity of his legacy as the founder of the three great monotheistic religions, the contrast is quite startling.
"It’s winter now in Israel. Though we do not have a lot of rainy days here, still on the slopes of the Judean Hills, at the roots of tall pine trees, one can find different kinds of mushrooms growing, edible ones abound..." - Revital Yona's New blog entry.
We have all heard the phrase “Behind each great man is a great woman.” If the Bible been the first to make such a statement, surely it would have been in reference to Rebecca, wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau.
This somewhat remote mountaintop top in the Upper Galilee is as much today the epicenter of Jewish spirituality as it was nearly 2,000 years ago.
Eastory Online is committed to bringing you unique and thoughtful jewelry that will infuse your personal narrative with more beauty and meaning. Our extensive collection features designs from the talented Israeli artists, both burgeoning and well-established. Each piece was lovingly crafted by an artist with a story to tell. Eastory’s jewelry will therefore come to you with a history of its own, but you will be the one to make its future..
The role of religion has mostly been played down as a source of influence on this issue, but bearing in mind that the western culture and world view have been shaped to a great extent by the Judeo-Christian scriptures, it is worth while to have a second look at those sources and try to see what they attempt to teach us about the issue of keeping the world intact.
Part 3 - The 72 Names of the creator in Kabbalah. Theoretical Kabbalists meditate on these names to gain spiritual insight. Practical Kabbalists use the names to affect the physical and supernatural worlds.
Located midway between Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Gallery Zainab presents to Arab and Islamic art enthusiasts a great collection of authentic art objects covering a vast region which stretches from Morocco in the West to the whole passage of the Silk Road.
The Central Bureau of statistics publishes data on the 144,000 Christians living in Israel: most are Arabs living in the north and preferring to have no more than two children
The role of religion has mostly been played down as a source of influence on this issue, but bearing in mind that the western culture and world view have been shaped to a great extent by the Judeo-Christian scriptures, it is worth while to have a second look at those sources and try to see what they attempt to teach us about the issue of keeping the world intact.
Part 2 - Kabbalah Jewelry & The Red String: It is a mistake to think that Kabbalah jewelry is a brand new trend or fad. It is actually an ancient custom.
The first part of a series of articles explaining the basic concepts of Kabbalah.
Part One - The Zohar: Foundation of Kabbalah
"There is something truly magical about the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah as it is celebrated in Jerusalem..." Revital Yona's New Blog Entry!
A city within a city – the Philistine city of Qasile in the middle of present-day Tel-Aviv. Most of the people visiting or living in Tel-Aviv can't guess that under the busy and lively modern city lies a 3200 year old Philistine city, called Tell Qasile.
The first time I heard a music played by Shmemel, a band of ten guys playing saxophones, trombone, keyboard, guitars, bass and drums, was in a sunny afternoon at the promenade of the Tel Aviv port.
As a small cluster of lights indicating the town of Jericho emerges briefly and fades into the darkness, I am reminded that the Judean Desert is one of history’s most enigmatic stages, a theater of epic battles, of heroism and tragedy. A short trip south of Jericho leads to another place of drama and legend: the ancient military fort of Masada.
What is Kabbalah? A character on NBC’s 30 Rock once described Kabbalah as “the fun part of Judaism, combined with magic.” To be sure, since Madonna and other Hollywood A-listers began donning their red strings in the late 90s, the world’s exposure to Kabbalah has increased, but lamentably, its new space in the limelight has done little to clarify its essence. Luckily for me, the Holy Land is abundant with answers to such questions.
Not all locations in the Holy Land are likely to provoke decided imagery or bring with it a powerful sense of connection. It is even less frequent that the settings of the Bible measure up to their scriptural descriptions. The Sea of Galilee is a refreshing exception.
“I was invited by a Catholic friend to spend Christmas Eve in Bethlehem.” 2008 marked a rare occasion of Hanukkah and Christmas overlapping. For the pluralist and culturally inquisitive Welch, the trip represented an unparallel “Christmakah” opportunity.
An unusually large collection of coins from the period of Alexander Jannai, linked to the parable of the poor widow’s gift (Mark XII, Luke XX1) was discovered a few years ago at the bottom of the Dead Sea, close to Qumran. The question of how the treasure got there will perhaps never be answered.
Amazing findings in the Siloam Pool excavations could assist in locating the Temple treasures.
“It’s not simply an archaeological discovery – it’s a miracle from Heaven”. So says Dr. Eilat Mazar, Jerusalem’s own Indiana Jones, who recently discovered the remains of King David’s palace.
Rare findings in the Temple Mount sewers hint at a link between the Freemasons and the Templars
In the orchards of a kibbutz close to Ein Kerem in the Jerusalem hills, archaeologists have uncovered the cave in which John the Baptist found seclusion.
The architecture in Jerusalem is mirror to the city’s multiculturalism, and is made up of an assorted blend of ancient, old, and new; modern, authentic; classic and oriental. In contrast to Jerusalem’s endless variety stands the Jerusalem Stone, demonstrating uniformity and conformity in the midst of stylistic chaos.
Jerusalem’s unique position in the spiritual and historical tradition of the west and its sanctity in the Jewish heritage has won it dozens of titles that reflect man’s attempt to explain and define it’s multi facet identity, and charged its name with innumerous meanings; some obvious and explicit, others veiled, cryptic and implicit.
Jerusalem is known to all as the city holy to the three large monotheistic religions. Its current status in the Christian world is the product of a two thousand years’ old synthesizing process, which involved Christianity’s various geographical, historical, spiritual and theological origins, and has been influenced, over the years, by political, economical and religious trends.
Revital Yona's Third Blog entery on The 52nd Annual Jerusalem March
I wish I could start stating my name and my addiction, but I can’t (I don’t want to prematurely kill my grandma), so I will only say what others have said before me (others maybe less sensitive to their grandma’s feelings or maybe others that don’t have a grandma): I am a Jew and I love Christmas.
Jerusalem appears in a brilliant gloss of white stone – it is the same stone that gives the preceding mountains their eerie historic essence. Jerusalem stone is the material of nearly every structure, literally, the cornerstone of the city’s vibrant history. This is it's History.
All major metropolitan areas are equipped with their very own “must-see” museum. New York has the Met, Paris the Louvre, Washington D.C. the Smithsonian. Although Tel Aviv is about a tenth of the size of the above cities in both dimension and population, she is at no loss for a spectacular museum of her own, the Eretz Israel Museum.
The City of David, today a small hill in the middle of modern Jerusalem, hides lots of treasures from ancient times. Some of those treasures have just recently been discovered. During 2009 archeologists found in the excavations of The City of David a variety of artifacts from the time of King David and his successors.
On Tuesday, 17th or 18th October 1009, a group of workmen entered the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and started demolishing what was then (and is now) the holiest site for Christians worldwide. Who ordered them to do so, and why?
For residents and visitors of present-day Jerusalem the Monastery of the Cross, with its fortress-like stone walls adorned with flags of Greece and Georgia, might seem a bit out of place. Its location a short distance from a busy junction and from the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) can make one wonder how it got there.
Israel is a melting pot, an ingathering place for Jewish exiles from around the world. One of the newer waves of immigration to the country is that of Beta Israel (literally The House of Israel), or the Ethiopian Jews.
The discovery of several date pits from the Temple period and the successful attempt to sprout them mean that in the near future, with a little luck, we’ll be able to eat the same kinds of dates that our ancestors ate in Biblical times.
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